Richard Laviolette 1982-2023

Richard Laviolette 1982-2023

September 6, 2023 | Posted in: Richard Laviolette 0

We said goodbye to Richard Laviolette today.

Richard was in touch with a deep magic, a deep, brave, river of song. He was a beautiful, kind, funny person. I don’t separate those things. He was my friend.

Richard was the first artist we worked with at YC, outside of our immediate founding circle. I had played shows a few times with Richard and loved his “A Little Less Like A Rock…” CD. It was beautiful and mysterious and intimate, in its hand sewn sleeve, its depiction of ants and universes and neighbourhoods and alphabets. When he gave me a CDR of All Of Your Raw Materials at a house show in Guelph, I loved it instantly. This is a defining album for me, a lesson in love and courage and community. It is an album for life.

Everything I can think to say today about love and loss and the way to celebrate life through music, Richard has said in one of his songs. They burst with life and mortality, with guts and glory, with love, justice, honesty, and a beautiful mischief. These songs were expressions of the particularities of Richard’s life and his voice, and they were songs that found embodiment in that particular body, and in his voice, but they always, magically, transcended these specifics. It’s been beautiful to hear his songs picked up by other voices. At the tribute show in Guelph last week Cormac thanked Richard for sharing his living with us and for sharing his dying with us. This is a profound gift.

Thank you for sharing your songs with us Richard, thank you for your voice. Thank you for your joy and your grace. Thank you for your friendship.

We had the great honour of releasing two of Richard’s albums on YC, All Of Your Raw Materials in 2010 and Taking The Long Way Home in 2017. There is another, final record forthcoming, a last record Richard worked to complete in these past months: All Wild Things Are Shy. Much of Richards other work has recently been uploaded to his Bandcamp Page. Hollow Hooves, Soundtrack To The Life of A Car, A Little Less Like A Rock A Little More Like A Home, and more. Here’s the link.

Our love to all who loved him. Sing loud. Sing together. That’s how we do it, i think, that’s how we can do it.

We love you Ricky.

– Steve

“Following the onset of Huntington’s Disease symptoms this past fall and their rapid worsening since May, Richard chose to receive MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying), and he died peacefully this evening on September 5.”

Photograph by Colin Medley.

YCTV: Sappyfest and Hillside Special Report

YCTV: Sappyfest and Hillside Special Report

August 11, 2023 | Posted in: Fiver, Julie Doiron, Shotgun Jimmie, Steven Lambke, YCTV 0

Summer is festival season in the music world and YCTV correspondents Shotgun Jimmie, Julianna Riolino, and Nathan Doucet are here to take you behind the scenes, deep into the methods and the magic, into the grind and the glory of Sappyfest in Sackville NB and Hillside Festival in Guelph ON in this brand new episode of our immensely popular and hard hitting journalistic series. The SAPPYFEST & HILLSIDE SPECIAL REPORT features family, flour, festival survival tactics, fear pointing, june like bugs, tick costumes, what are we doing, it is what it is, young lions, strawberry ice cream, secret shows, special guests, all-stars, modulations, sneaky mirrors, impending doom, memories, not remembering, top notch, 100%, and lots of love to Richard Laviolette. Don’t miss it!

Jon Mckiel: “Deeper Shade” acoustic, tour dates!

Jon Mckiel: “Deeper Shade” acoustic, tour dates!

August 9, 2023 | Posted in: Jon Mckiel 0

YCTV presents a special acoustic performance by Jon Mckiel! Jon performs “Deeper Shade” from his absolutely magical 2020 album Bobby Joe Hope live at his home in Baie Verte, NB. Camera and sound by Colin Medley.

Catch Jon Mckiel performing as a duo with Jay Crocker (JOYFULTALK) live at the following international engagements:

Aug 11 – Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
Aug 31 – The Cavendish Arms, London, UK
Sept 1 – End Of The Road, Dorset, UK
Sept 5 – Off61, Montecarotto, Italy
Sept 8 – La Serre dei Giardini Margherita, Bologna, Italy
Sept 9 – Mazzini 66, Ravenna, Italy
Sept 10 – Baravai Antieatro Romano, Terni, Italy

YCTV: LIVE AT RIVER AND SKY

YCTV: LIVE AT RIVER AND SKY

CTV presents the latest in hard-hitting, behind-the-scenes music journalism with LIVE AT RIVER & SKY! Watch as Shotgun Jimmie, Julie Doiron, Daniel Romano’s Outfit, Status/Non-Status and Julianna Riolino descend/ascend at River & Sky Festival (in Field, ON) to new states of musical excellence, friendship, summer-fun, and practical magic: How to pitch a tent, soundcheck, those aren’t hotdogs those are sausages, just a few dabs of relish, flutes, foghorns, and snare drums. And get exclusive info on YC’s newest signing! Be the first to know. Be the last to leave. Clean up after yourself. Lend a hand.

As witnessed by Colin “The Eye” Medley in the heart of the summer.

NEW MUSIC: SPIDER BITE – THE RAINBOW AND THE DOVE

NEW MUSIC: SPIDER BITE – THE RAINBOW AND THE DOVE

June 16, 2023 | Posted in: Daniel Romano, Steven Lambke 0

Warmongers run the newspapers, the daily podcasts, the social media feeds. Capital creates and harvests our despair. Cultural heroes are as money-mad as bankers, standing on corpses, wearing diamonds. The songs of this age are hopeless. In this world of lies, Spider Bite celebrate truth: raw, ragged, and full of brave energy, bravely dreaming of possible futures in the immediate and active now, in this exact and ever active present: after the flood, in the ruins of love.

Spider Bite is the sound of Daniel Romano (The Outfit, Ancient Shapes, Attack In Black), Ian Romano (Daniel Romano’s Outfit, Career Suicide) and Steven Lambke (Constantines) returning to their roots in the thriving pit of DIY punk with a perspective, skill, and energy that can only be gained from long experience in music, art, and stubborn cultural creation. Spider Bite began in the depths of the first COVID-19 lockdown, a world poised between protests and rebellions, when a fearful silence held its breath, twitching the curtains, and strange imaginations ran unleashed through dark streets. Long-time collaborators Daniel Romano and Steven Lambke, who together established the artist run record label You’ve Changed Records in 2009, and monster drummer Ian Romano chose this moment to indulge their shared love of energetic street punk, releasing the self-titled debut as a Bandcamp-only release in May 2020. The album was enthusiastically embraced and even cracked the best of lists on some of the more adventurous independent music blogs.

But still. Time passes. More wars. More storms. More ruin caused by greed. Spider Bite reconvened in the spring of 2022, recording The Rainbow and The Dove, an album that assembles the wisdom teachings of punk elders into a passionate rejection of settler-colonialism, environmental racism, and the general exploitation of the world by monarchs and resource extraction companies. Every moment is historical. Spider Bite celebrate a continuity of protest and refusal, and the communal joy of loud energy. Animated by a surprising humor and immense instrumental power, Spider Bite create a vibrant portrait of living in violent times.

This is our music.

YC-060
Spider Bite – The Rainbow And The Dove
LP/Digital
🕷️🖤🕷️

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